In this CNET article we find out about yet another client that’s including podcasting support. As I’ve mentioned previously about Media Player, and about the Apple iTunes, this is a total natural. Any client that current understands RSS will soon understand the RSS Enclosures, the technology behind podcasting.
I think the podcast curve is going to be a lot bigger than we previously thought.
I just caught these posts on Scobelizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger and also Corante talking about how Microsoft is also (finally) working on integrating Podcatching functions in their Windows Media Player.
It was inevitable. Podcatching is such a lightweight application that integrating it into iTunes and Windows Media Player is a natural. They both already do the downloading, ripping, and synchronization functions, what’s the big deal in adding some simple XML consumption (junction, what’s your) functions?
This is fantastic news for podcasters everywhere. Within about 6 months, we’re all going to have a listener base in the many, many millions.
If you use WordPress and have found out that for some reason it is not automatically recognizing certain file extensions as enclosures (my personal experience was that it did not recognize .wmv files) it’s because your server doesn’t have the proper MIME-TYPE setting for that file extension.
The way WordPress automatically creates enclosures is that is queries the server with the URI of your linked file (e.g. an mp3 file) and then parses the server’s returned MIME-TYPE. If it discovers the MIME-TYPE is of either audio or video, it then creates the appropriate enclosure entry.
So, if you ain’t gettin’ your RSS enclosure automatically created, it’s because the MIME-TYPE is missing from the server. But how do you fix that? Every server is different so the fix below only applies to an Apache server with the .htaccess feature enabled.
Here’s the fix:
Just edit the .htaccess file on the local home directory of the Web server that is hosting the audio/video files and add the proper MIME-TYPE that corresponds to the file you’re trying to access. In my case I was adding a MIME-TYPE for WMV (Windows Media Video) files. I added the following line into my .htaccess file:
AddType video/x-ms-wmv .wmv
Here’s a table of other mimetypes. You can also of course Google around and find more.
CAUTION: you need to be careful/aware if you already have an .htaccess file and if so, make sure you edit that file and ADD the above line instead of OVERWRITING that file. Of course if you’re sure that file doesn’t exist then you should be able to create it.
Eric Rice, a well-known podcaster and founder of the popular AudioBlog.Com is going on a (global?) Roadshow to demonstrate the use of both podcasting and VideoBlogging (kinda like blogging but with a video camera).
And of course, he was very smart to pick Hawaii as the launching pad for his journey. Check out what he produced and you’ll get a feel for what VideoBlogging is.
If you didn’t catch our previous post that introduces you to podcasting, you better do it soon because it’s gonna be huge-right-now.
I just caught on Podcasting News that at the D3: All things Digital Conference, Steve Jobs announced that the next release of iTunes 4.9 will have podcasting features built-in. This is GIANT news as it will effectively add an audience of about 27 million of users to the podcast community.
It will probably also mean that subscribing and downloading to podcasts will become dramatically easier as well if this follows Apple’s typically intuitive user interfaces.
I’m certain that Microsoft will soon follow with a similar addition to its Windows Media Player.
Folks, this is a tremendous yet natural development in podcasting. We are about to see an explosion of this new media.
Whatever you were going to do about Podcasting, you better do it now.